


Surprise! (Or How Ace Managed to be a Disastrous Dork Even When He's not Around)

by acecoupseu



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Comedy, Fluff and Humor, M/M, totally unrelated but please imagine Izo in oversized clothings uwu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 03:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20923679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acecoupseu/pseuds/acecoupseu
Summary: Marco wasn't suppose to knowanythingabout the whole plan - Ace's plan. But it wasn't his fault when Ace, and apparently everyone involved, were bad liars, right?or, to put it simple, Marco caught conversations he shouldn't have heard anything about and Ace causing minidisasterseven when he's away.Anyways, happy birthday, Marco! (20191005)





	Surprise! (Or How Ace Managed to be a Disastrous Dork Even When He's not Around)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I kind of set college aside to write this because surprise, it's me being too invested in fictional characters again! 
> 
> Anyway, I visualized Marco and Ace's place being the similar to Doctor Strange's apartment (condo?) from the movie.  
And as the tag said, imagine Izo in oversized clothing AND he rarely wore pants because Y'ALL he loves showing off his legs.  
This fic is all about love, family, and happiness, because THEY DESERVE IT. PERIODT.
> 
> And most importantly, Happy Birthday to Marco, ugh I love him *^*  
Do enjoy this fic, and I'm sorry in advance for the mistakes you'll see here, English is not my first language.  
As usual, the whitebeards are family by choice, they are completely unrelated to each other!  
If you like this, kudos and comments will be very much appreciated<33

The first time that _certain_ secret spilled out, Marco honestly had no idea what they were talking about.

The day had gone like this: It was a Monday and the last day of September. He had just finished consulting with a parent whose daughter had broken her elbow two weeks ago when a nurse suddenly dragged his ass towards the ED.

Marco sighed; this time of the year wasn’t as bad as winter or summer where people with broken bones would suddenly increase by half, but still, it was his break time and he had been planning to call his lov—

“Luffy?”

The orthopedist stopped in his track when he saw _Luffy_, on the bed, “shishishi”-ed while his right toes all crooked in abnormal direction and nails _bleeding_.

“Marco! Where is Torao?”

“He is a neurosurgeon, Luffy. He doesn’t handle broken toes, yoi,” Marco answered with mild amusement.

“Oh, okay,” Luffy looked confused, but accepted the fact. Marco _just_ knew what was running inside his raven head—_Aren’t all doctors the same?_ “Can I meet Torao?” Luffy decided to ask.

“I’ll get him for you after I finish mending your toes, yoi. Now, tell me what happened?”

Luffy laughed harder and proceeded to tell Marco the whole story.

.

**[Be sure to keep Luffy in the hospital!! Talk to you later. Love youuu :*]**

Marco smiled at Ace’s message. After he finished tending to Luffy, he hurried and took his lunch—Thatch’s cooking—towards the rooftop garden area (Of course after telling Doctor Trafalgar that Luffy had _requested_ him). He had planned to phone Ace, but the freckled man said he couldn’t take phone calls so they had gone with texting.

“_I missed your birthday last year and I’m going to miss it again this year. Shut up and let me be a grumpy ass for today, Marco.”_ That was Ace’s words 2 days ago when the freckled man had snuggled himself up to the blonde and _pouted_ all night long. The freckled man had to go on a business trip for 10 days and he hadn’t been happy about that. Marco had_ distracted _Ace from his somber mood with his own_ method_ of course.

Now he was on the way to Luffy’s room to tell the big ball of energy that his brother had ordered him to stay in the hospital. Trust Luffy to make his own condition worsen even though he only hurt his foot.

Seriously, people _actually_ fell for the leaf kicking trap? Marco couldn’t help laughing when he remembered Luffy’s story about how he had _unknowingly_ kicked the life out of a fire hydrant with his sandaled feet—who the hell wore flip flop sandals in this time of the year?

The orthopedist was about to knock when Luffy’s excited voice startled him.

“-You’re coming right, Torao?! Ace said he will cook lots of food! I love Ace’s cooking-”

“You love everyone’s cooking, Luffy-ya,” his surgeon boyfriend interrupted, voice unamused.

“-because he always make dishes from our hometown! Besides, you’re friends, so you’re coming too!”

“Well, yeah, he’s a fine company-“

“-Zoro, Sanji, Robin, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, Franky and Brook are coming too!” Oh Marco knew them, especially Chopper, he was an intern here and Robin, a psychiatrist. He rarely met her though, she worked in different building. But what was Luffy talking about? Was Ace going to throw a-

“Luffy-ya, this is _not _your party, remember?”

“Shh, silly Torao. Ace said it’s fine, so it’s fine!”

“Ace-ya said it’s fine because he couldn’t say no to you,” Marco shook his head and smiled at Trafalgar’s words knowing that, yes, Ace could never say no to Luffy. But honestly, Trafalgar was really one to talk.

.

The second time _something_ happened, he managed to connect some dots about what Luffy’s words had been about.

It was the next day, he was back in Luffy’s room when he found a green haired man beside Luffy. Marco remembered Zoro, because he remembered Zoro’s blonde lover, who once gave Izo free meals at his father’s restaurant because Izo was, Marco quoted, ‘the prettiest Mellorine’ the cook had seen that day. Izo had gone home and laughed his ass off that day. Then Ace had gone and told Luffy. Thus, let’s say the rest was history.

“Good morning, Luffy. How do you feel, yoi?” he greeted Luffy and nodded his head at Zoro, who waved his hand in return.

“Bored. I wanna go home, please, Marco, can I go home?”

“Ace said you can’t go home. Maybe later this week, when the bleeding completely stops, okay?”

“It’s only bleeding nails, Marco,” Luffy started to whine.

“You can’t Luffy. Ace is away and the least I can do for him is to make sure his brother-“

“No, he’s not! He’s with San-“

Out of nowhere, Zoro coughed loud and hard. That immediately took Marco and Luffy’s whole attention, especially the latter, who looked more terrified rather than surprised.

“Sore throat. Sorry, guys. Please continue,” Zoro spoke out, calm voice with an edge in it, while subtly glaring daggers at Luffy. But Marco wasn’t stupid; he noticed they were _hiding_ something. And of course Luffy’s panicked face helped with nothing.

So Marco asked away, “’Ace is with’ who, Luffy, yoi?” because Marco knew how much his boyfriend’s brother sucked at lying.

“There you are, stupid mosshead!” the door to Luffy’s room suddenly flung open. “I told you to wait, didn’t I? Let’s head back, you gotta fix my kitchen _again_. Here, Luffy, finish, what are these supposed to be, cakes?” Sanji grumbled and threw a blue lunch box to Luffy’s lap, “I swear you brothers only know how to destroy my kitch-“ the blonde stopped short when he noticed Marco standing there.

.

The same night, Marco decided to call Ace to confirm his suspicions. But the “Ace, where are you _now_?” left unanswered as—Marco hated to admit this—Ace managed to distract the blonde with his own question; a “Marco, what are you wearing now?” question in a low and seductive tone.

.

The last time another secret spilled, Marco couldn’t help his smile and shook his head at his lover’s antics.

It was a Thursday, the third day of October. Marco hadn’t been able to call Ace again since their fervid encounter. Marco had woken up the next day to Ace’s **[“Well good night to you too, sleepy pineapple head. I miss you. See you reaaally soon ;)”]** and realization that he was indeed _helpless _against his freckled lover.

Today, he was going to discharge Luffy because the big ball of energy couldn’t even stay still anymore.

But he stopped on the doorway when he saw the person next to Luffy’s bedside.

“Thatch?” 

His brother turned his head towards Marco and stilled—that was Thatch’s body language when he’s nervous. Marco internally smirked, he could get _something _out of his brother.

“Hey, Marco! What you up to?”

“Thatch, we live next door and I work here, yoi. What are _you_ up to?”

“Right,” Thatch’s mouth settled into a straight line. “I’m here to pick Luffy up,”

The orthopedist raised his eyebrow at that. “You? That’s very unusual,”

“Yeah, well, as his brother’s boyfriend’s brother, I’m here to help! ‘Sides everyone’s busy with work and I’m not,” Thatch shrugged his shoulders with a smug smile on his face.

“Okay. And where’s Izo?”

“He’s gone gift picking with A-“ Thatch widen his eyes at his own words and he saw Luffy decided to busy himself with the TV. “Atmos,”

Marco wanted to ask _what gift_, too, but he decided to spare Thatch who had already gone pale on his spot. After all, it’s no secret that his brothers always gave him gifts—weird gifts—for his birthday.

“Isn’t he working?” It’s true, he _memorized_ all his brothers’ schedule. “Atmos always complain about some asshole he supposed to train has their schedule on Thursdays, remember?”

Thatch froze, either he forgot that his brother was a gym trainer or at Marco who wasn’t having any of his lie.

“Well, I’m flattered, yoi. Thank you but please don’t do any prank gifts anymore this year,” Marco smirked, clear amusement in his voice.

.

After finished with Luffy and the raven already standing on his feet (plus a “Marco, I want Torao, please!”), Marco went to deal with the front desk business—Luffy’s words.

Of course as soon as he closed the door to Luffy’s room, he could hear sudden outburst from his lover’s brother.

_“Boo! Thatch almost ruined Ace’s plan!”_

_“Oi, don’t blame me!” _Thatch had said, tone totally devastated. _“Both Ace and Izo know how I can’t lie to Marco but they still told me to get you, blame them!”_

They had continued to argue like five years olds, Luffy being the one who actually _spilled_ the whole thing. He said stuff about “Marco”, “birthday”, “Ace” and “party”.

A surprise party for _him_, really, Ace? Marco couldn’t help the warm feeling in his chest. Come to think about it, what kind of business trip did _fire fighters_ had to go to? Had he always been a total sap when it got to Ace?

The answer’s yes.

.

Saturday morning, Marco woke up to a **[“Happy birthday, Marco! I hope you don’t miss me too much, I’ll be home soon and I’ll congratulate you later ;) I love you and I miss you!! A loooot :(( p/s: I’ll call you tonight :*“] **text from Ace, which was unusually short—and partly a lie, but it still brought smile to his face.

“I miss you too, you dork,” Marco whispered to the empty bedroom. No matter how heartwarmingly cute Ace’s whole idea was, he only wished today would be over soon so he could just come over to wherever Ace had been hiding and brought him _home_.

.

His coworkers congratulated him as he got to the hospital. Marco wasn’t the type of person who took days off on their birthday.

And he actually quite enjoyed Saturday’s coffee breaks because Ace usually accompanied him. Non-staff weren’t allowed in the rooftop garden area, but Marco didn’t pay no mind to that. Besides, no one except the gardeners and Doctor Trafalgar liked to spend their time here.

Speaking of Trafalgar. “Hey, happy birthday, Doc” the said man seated himself beside Marco on the garden’s bench.

“Thanks, yoi,”

A few seconds passed and Trafalgar spoke again. “So, you know, huh?”

Marco raised his eyebrow at Trafalgar’s remark. “Know about what, exactly?”

“You’re smiling ever since you walked in the hospital. I wouldn’t be that _happy_ if Luffy-ya wasn’t here for my birthday, to be quite honest,” Trafalgar said, with his trademarked smirk. “Besides, Luffy is the worst at keeping _secrets_.”

Marco chuckled. “Yeah, he is,” he answered short.

“Guess I wouldn’t have to think too hard about this one, then,”

Just as Marco was about to ask what did the neurosurgeon mean, Trafalgar showed him his phone—a text from ‘Luffy’, but it had gone like this:

** [“This is Ace. Distract Marco from coming home early if you still want my blessing. Thanks.”] **

Now Marco couldn’t content his laugh. How Ace still remained hostile towards Luffy’s boyfriend was just unbelievable. Marco sometimes felt bad for Trafalgar but he also knew Ace didn’t actually hate the surgeon. It was just Ace’s more childish about his protectiveness than his other brother, Sabo.

“Ah, I’m sorry, he’s being a child, yoi,” Marco wiped tears from his eyes.

Trafalgar chuckled. “It’s okay, I understand his overprotectiveness over Luffy,” the tattooed man said with a small smile, no doubt thinking about how naïve and overoptimistic Luffy was.

.

“Act surprised, okay?” the neurosurgeon whispered as they arrived in front of Marco’s door.

They had been lounging in the hospital’s cafeteria after their shift was over when Law received another text from ‘Luffy’ saying, **[“Bring Marco home right now. Hurry”]**.

“Of course,” Marco smiled, turning his key. Really, what did he do to deserve Ace in his life-

“Happy birthday, Marco!!” a yell of chorus _actually_ surprised him as he opened the door to his condo.

And he hadn’t even recovered yet when someone familiar dashed and threw himself towards the blonde. Marco caught him and the said man circled his legs around Marco’s waist.

“Surprise!” Ace, with a smile so wide it reached his eyes, yelled at the blonde’s face. Marco didn’t even realize he had been smiling at the sight of Ace’s stars-like-freckles in front of him. He was just about to close the distance between them when someone—Thatch—slapped his back, hard.

“Save your smooching for later, boys! Look who’s here, Marco!” Thatch said without feeling guilty, as if he wasn’t the one who had-unintentionally-spilled Ace’s whole secret. No one needed to know that Marco knew though.

Ace climbed down, not after he gave Marco a peck on his cheek, and moved out of his sight-“Pops?!” Marco exclaimed as he saw his father sitting on his armchair with a wide smile on his face.

The tall man laughed out loud. “Happy birthday, son!”

Honestly, Marco could feel his heart swelled with happiness. He hadn’t been able to visit Pops at all since last year and seeing him here, looking happy and healthy really brought Marco into te-

“Wait, who gave you this junk?!” Marco snatched the bottle of rum away from his father’s hand while the older man only laughed harder.

.

Luffy wasted no time to scream “food” on top of his lungs after Marco had blown his candles. The blonde could only see Ace’s blushing face for a millisecond before his freckled lover whipped his face so fast and ran towards the dining table, afraid Luffy would_ inhale_ everything if Ace didn’t stop him.

Marco only shook his head and turned towards his brothers—Ace had made sure all 12 (excluding Izo and Thatch because they lived next door) of them were here today, including the ones who still lived with Pops eight hours away from this city.

He took a seat beside Thatch, who had Izo in his lap and a glass of an orange juice (he got weak liver but didn’t want to admit it) in his hand.

“Hello, birthday boy, how do you feel?” he heard Izo questioned him.

Marco glance around, balloons, banners and confetti in mismatched colors decorated his kitchen and large living room. His brothers and friends were here, all talking and joking around with a smile on their faces—Luffy hadn’t been kidding when he said _everyone_ would be here (he also noticed Sanji was hiding behind his boyfriend’s back at the sight of Izo).

Pops was enjoying himself too, laughing as he watched Luffy and Ace engaged themselves in an eating competition.

And of course, _Ace_, who had planned this whole thing and made today possible, who had learned how to bake so he could make the birthday cake himself, who had _horribly_ lied and chosen even _worse_ liars to back is lies up, who now suddenly collapsed on top of his food, settled Luffy as the winner.

Marco laughed along with everyone.

“I’m grateful, yoi,” he said, fondness pouring out of his smile.

.

The real problem laid after the party had finished around 11. Luffy’s friends had excused themselves after they congratulated Marco. Luffy almost stayed because he insisted a sleepover, the trouble maker. He had been having an arm-wrestling competition with Pops but he kept losing so the raven had demanded rematches after rematches.

Ace had encouraged his brother of course, Luffy staying here was better than having his little brother staying with Trafalgar. Marco had to back the surgeon up. He reasoned with Ace, because no matter how spacious his and Thatch’s places were, they still got quite a trouble with _how_ were their brothers going to sleep.

“He could sleep with us, Marco!!” Ace had argued. Marco and-he could _feel_-Trafalgar had paled at that.

So, long story short, Ace had lost the argument (_“You only win because Sabo is currently abroad, _Law_,”_) and Trafalgar had to carry Luffy away because Luffy kept demanding his rematch.

His father had only “gurara”-ed towards the whole situation.

.

Pops ended up sleeping in Marco’s guest bedroom, of course. His brothers who lived nearby had gone home so that left Haruta and Jiru going with Izo and Thatch because they wanted the- _futon_, was it? Namur went with Haruta and Jiru too, but since Izo’s guest bedroom had been transformed into his home studio, Namur got Thatch’s sofa.

Fossa, Kingdew and Blenheim invaded Marco’s living room and settled themselves on the sofas. Vista got his option, the sofa in Marco and Ace’s bedroom or Pops’ bedroom. The mustached man chose the ones in Pops’ bedroom.

“It’s better to listen to Pops’ loud snore rather than witness whatever you two are going to do under the cover!”

Marco and Ace blushed at that, while their brothers laughed their ass off. Especially Fossa, who was now on the floor and crying.

.

“I can’t believe Vista!” Ace dramatically threw his hands up. He was in the middle of undressing himself while Marco waited for him under the warm comforter. “Of course we aren’t going to do anything with Pops and them around, right, Marco?!” Ace stepped out of his jeans, leaving him only with his briefs on.

“Ace?”

“Yeah?”

“I miss you.”

Ace softened at that. He walked across the room and flung himself on top of Marco, who let out a surprised “oof-“. The freckled man laughed, pulling the comforter to cover their bodies and wrapped his arms around Marco’s torso. The older returned the gesture, settled for Ace’s freckled waist.

“I miss you too, pineapple head,” Ace said, resting his head on Marco’s chest. “How was the surprise? Are you surprised? Wait- of course you are! I can’t believe everything had gone sooo well!”

Marco only hummed at that and listened as Ace kept on rambling about his past weeks.

“-Luffy said Thatch almost spilled everything! Of course, it’s _Thatch_! He sucks at lying-“

“Ace?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you,”

Marco could feel Ace staring at him even with his eyes closed. “Anytime, Marco,” Ace replied while burying his face in Marco’s neck.

“Now sleep, yoi. Gotta babysit everyone at the zoo tomorrow,” Marco smiled the hundredth times today.

When he didn’t get a reply, he opened his eyes only to see Ace already asleep. Marco brushed his lover’s hair and planted a soft peck on top of the freckled man’s head.

“I love you, Ace,” he said softly and drifted to sleep, but he caught a small “Love you too, old man,” and felt the other smiled _mischievously_ against his neck.


End file.
